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Troublemaking New Pet

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"We are Siamese if you don't please!"

You've just noticed that your pet is seemingly lonely, so what's the best thing to do? Get a new pet that might be a good friend for the current pet. However, just as soon as you leave the room, the new pet actually turns out to be very troublesome and spoiled, tearing up the rugs and the curtains, spilling milk all over the floor, and knocking over the trash.

When you come back in the room, you become surprised at the mess and become quick to blame the old pet for causing the damage. The pet tries to insist that he did not do it, but you don't listen (of course, it helps that the pet isn't usually able to talk). The old pet takes matters in his own paws to expose the new pet for the fraud that he is. Once the new pet has been exposed for what he really is, he is immediately disposed of, and the old pet is forgiven.

Also, there are some variants of this trope where instead of a pet, it's when a person tries to make friends with another character who also does a lot of misdeeds to get the other in trouble.

Setting aside the anthropomorphic elements, there can be a certain amount of Truth in Television to this, as stress and pecking-order issues can cause misbehavior in both the new and existing pets unless the owners are careful about introducing the new arrival.

Not to be confused with Troublesome Pet, where the pet just misbehaves in general (regardless of the presence of existing pets).

Compare: Bitch in Sheep's Clothing and Clear My Name.


Examples

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    Advertising 

  • A Polaroid commercial had a dog who was blamed for getting into the trash, despite the fact that he was the one who didn't do it. The dog then discovers that it was actually the cat who got into the trash and pinned the blame on him, so he uses the Polaroid camera to take pictures of the cat to prove his innocence to his owner.
  • This Pepsi commercial had a dog eat his owner's sandwich and drink his Pepsi before making it look like that the cat did it.

    Anime and Manga 

  • In Hayate the Combat Butler, Shiranui causes plenty of problems when he(?) is first brought to the San'zenin mansion, mostly for Tama who was trying to get the new cat kicked out. Later on he also causes trouble by stealing Izumi's phone when he and Tama are lost in the city and even is seen aiding some ghost cats that were giving Hayate a hard time.
  • Zigzagged in Inubaka when Mari considers buying a new pet to keep her current one company. Teppei advises against this and gives her a "test run" by having her pretend to welcome a new puppy. Her dog Lucky doesn't take this well and starts causing trouble to get Mari's attention.
  • A Johto episode of Pokémon: The Original Series had Ash and friends come across a seemingly cute and innocent Teddiursa, whom they temporarily take under their wing. However, when Ash, Misty, and Brock are not around, Teddiursa is not as innocent as he seems as he frames most of the Pokémon (Totodile, Chikorita, Psyduck, and Bulbasaur) for eating the food, which it actually did itself.

    Comic Books 

    Films — Animated 

  • Lady and the Tramp: Provides the page image.
    • Aunt Sarah stays to take care of the baby while Lady's owners are away. She brings along her Siamese cats, who quickly get up to mischief. When Sarah comes in and sees the mess — along with her "innocent little angels" acting hurt — she blames Lady and puts a muzzle on her. The Siamese cats on the other hand, were both never seen, heard, or mentioned again after this.
    • Aunt Sarah later does this to Lady's boyfriend Tramp, whom she thinks was attacking a baby, and immediately has him taken away by the dogcatcher (it was the rat that was attacking the baby, Tramp was actually protecting him but knocked over the baby's cradle while doing so). It is only from Lady's owners returning and heeding Lady's barking that the truth is discovered.
  • Subverted in The Secret Life of Pets. Max tries to make it look like Duke destroyed things around the house so Katie will get rid of him.

    Films — Live-Action 

  • A scene in Cats & Dogs had Mrs. Brody adopt a seemingly cute kitty which Lou the beagle is uncomfortable with, until it is revealed that the kitty was actually an agent for Mr. Tinkles. He immediately frames Lou by using a metal ball containing fake dog poop and dumps it on the floor, leading Mrs. Brody to think that Lou defecated on the floor, when really he did not.
  • The Mogwai pose as such in Gremlins. While Gizmo is fairly well behaved, his offspring quickly send warning flags with their treatment of the Peltzers' other pets, tormenting Gizmo multiple times, and tying up the family dog Barney in their outdoor Christmas lights (they get away with the latter not by framing either of them but because Billy instead suspected resident Jerkass Ms. Deagle, who holds a grudge against Barney). This culiminates in them sabotaging Billy's clock so he will unwittingly feed them after midnight and set off their metamorphosis, upon which the trope takes nightmarish levels...
  • Inverted in The Ugly Dachshund, where the dachshunds act like this to the Great Dane, the "new" pet in this case. After spilling paint, they're even shown cleaning themselves up so their masters won't notice they did it.

    Western Animation 

  • An episode of SpongeBob SquarePants had SpongeBob buy another pet as a friend for Gary so he's not lonely when he goes to work, but the pet hates being around other pets, something the sponge completely ignores, thus it causes a lot of trouble by tormenting Gary; and since SpongeBob is an expert of Comically Missing the Point, he thinks that Gary is roughhousing with the pet, even in the end when he blames Gary for all the damage.
  • Used without a new pet in the Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends episode "Everyone Knows It's Bendy". The friend is apparently wrongly blamed for all the misdeeds that he committed at his old creator's home, but once he's been welcomed to Foster's, he actually turns out to be a complete Jerkass who promptly gets Wilt, Eduardo, Coco, and Bloo into various kinds of troubles that he did himself, while still mooching to Mr. Herriman and Frankie under his innocent facade. Like the SpongeBob example, fans consider it the worst episode of the series (the crew even apologized for it, which is why Bendy was never seen again after this).
  • The Real Ghostbusters episode "Victor, The Happy Ghost" had the Ghostbusters adopt the ghost (an obviously blatant Expy of either Casper the Friendly Ghost or a Dr. Seuss character), much to Slimer's discomfort. However, Victor is not as innocent as he seems as he causes a lot of trouble for the Ghostbusters; touching one of Egon's inventions, eating the whole box of jelly donuts, closing the hood of Ecto-1 on top of Ray while he was working on the car, etc., leaving Slimer to be blamed for all the misdeeds that Victor did himself.
  • In the Tex Avery cartoon "The Cat Who Hated People", the cat is taken home to make friends with the family dog. The dog starts beating him up, but when the lady of the house arrives, he quickly gives the cat an axe, douses himself with ketchup and plays dead, and the poor cat gets the rap.
  • In the Tom and Jerry short "Tom's Photo Finish", Tom is almost caught raiding the fridge and sets Spike up to take the fall, which gets the poor dog taken outside. Unfortunately for Tom, Jerry has incriminating evidence, and Hilarity Ensues as Tom tries to cover it up.
    • Another cartoon, "Triplet Trouble", has Mammy Two-Shoes take in three kittens who then make mischief the moment she leaves the room. Tom and Jerry have to join forces to get even with them.
  • In the Looney Tunes short "Hare Force", Bugs Bunny is taken in by an old lady and locks horns with her jealous dog.
  • The House of Mouse short "Pluto's Kittens", which is about Pluto being kicked out of the house by Mickey Mouse after a trio of kittens sneak in and make a mess.
  • In her debut episode in Rugrats, Fluffy is like this to Spike.
  • In an episode of Eek! The Cat, the title character's owners Wendy Elizabeth and JB adopt a pink bunny who turns out to be a giant gray killer in disguise and causes a lot of damages in the house. Eek's owners think it was him doing it and punish him several times.
  • In an episode of Taz-Mania, Molly adopted an evil stray cat, but instead of another pet it tormented Taz.
  • In the Ruby Gloom episode "Bad Hare Day" Ruby and friends take in an adorable rabbit who it turns out was feigning sickness to get into their house and steal their belongings. When Doom Kitty gets suspicious, he uses this against her and makes her look paranoid and untrusting.
  • The Courage the Cowardly Dog episode "The Precious, Wonderful, Adorable, Lovable Duckling". Take a guess as to what is the new, troublemaking, innocent-looking pet out to torment Courage. Courage's owner finally realizes he was right when the duckling makes an attempt to kill her by tying her to a rocket.
  • Used in two Betty Boop cartoons.
    • Taking the Blame has Pudgy taking the blame for the damage caused by Betty's new cat. Betty eventually caught him in the act however.
    • We Did It, in which a trio of mischievous kittens causing trouble and having Pudgy take the fall. The kittens then feel guilty and confess to Betty with the title song.
  • In the Justice League Action episode "Unleashed", Dex-Starr infiltrates the Watchtower in the guise of an ordinary housecat. To get Krypto out of the way, he sets up the superdog to take the blame for fiddling with the controls and making messes.
  • Taken to ridiculous extremes in The Amazing World of Gumball episode "The Puppy" wherein the turtle the Wattersons end up getting as a pet is an borderline indestructible and all-but-stated-to-be-outright-evil hellion that terrorizes the family for the duration of the episode.
  • Dennis the Menace: In "Here, Kitty!", Dennis mistakes a mountain lion cub for a lost kitten and takes him home to keep as a pet. The mountain lion cub eats an entire ham, then later makes a huge mess of the living room, both of which Dennis accuses his dog Ruff of doing. When Alice sees the latter, she is not fooled.

 
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Puffy Fluffy

SpongeBob decides to get Gary a partner so he's not lonely when at work, but the creature is dangerous and hostile around other pets, and it shows. When SpongeBob notices, he thinks Gary is roughhousing the new pet, and jerkishly scolds him.

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